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Rant: 30-year Mac fanatic finally buys Windows
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I have to disagree with this comment.
There is nothing in Apple's line up that screams leading edge. While I love the iPhone it is by far the least featured phone on the market, i.e., lacking features such as wireless charging. The mac line up as discussed is behind the competitors, the iPad is playing catchup. Apple copied MS in creating a Surface Pro like machine.
The Apple watch and air buds are the only things that come to mind that can be considered leading edge imo.
I believe point being made "is trying" equally not necessarily succeeding. Apple wants be perceived as a tech leader yet as you state nothing really is. In many respects this is Apple's MO as they tend to sit back see what works and come up with a better recipe, that said...
enough said...
Q-6
It is so painful to look at that line up.
No doubt, but hey you can get a red iPhone and a new iPad today. It seems Tim Cook's pipeline of products isn't what I'm looking for these days.
Sadly, that pipeline is a pipe dream.
I might capitulate with the red iPhone as Android is not my bag. That said I completely respect and understand your snark/disappointment. It all comes down to what works best for me and that is still Apple despite some foul play in December and Tim Cook's pipeline.
I'd like to propose a different tripod: iCloud, iOS, and macOS. And of the three, macOS has the least promising future (business/profit wise) of the three. There's plenty of room to grow iCloud services, plenty of more devices and device types you can put iOS on, but laptops and desktops can only grow so much in a post PC world. Ultimately, I believe Apple is pushing for a world where an iOS device, plus iCloud (providing a macOS version of Amazon's EC2 services?), plus some kind of dock, can replace a laptop or PC.
Will they make it before they totally annoy a significant number of their fans and growth slows significantly? Who knows. The latest MBP seems to be selling well, so probably, yeah, they'll probably make it. I like Windows 10, ChromeOS, and Android, but I love iOS and macOS. They probably have a lot of leeway before I'll totally defect from the Apple ecosystem. And for everyone of us leaving, there's probably at least one other person joining their ecosystem.
I disagree. If you're looking for a platform that will last into the future, consider that Windows has survived for three decades now, and Unix for five. People are still using these operating systems because, although the hardware has changed out of all recognition in the last quarter-century, the investment people have put into learning the system and the legacy applications they run are enticements for them to continue using the system.
Apple encourages similar behavior under iOS, but via a "walled garden" ecosystem. You don't stay inside Apple's ecosystem because you want to, you do so because you have to.
As such, Apple doesn't feel nearly as much pressure to get its ecosystem onto as broad a range of hardware as other companies do. Microsoft makes more money if they can get Windows running on absolutely everything; but Apple makes more money if they can convince customers to live with fewer hardware choices. Fewer platforms means less development work, ability to buy parts in greater bulk (reducing costs), and decreased support problems.
The downside to this? iOS is fragile. Placing all the iOS eggs in just a few baskets means that if you stumble and drop one of those baskets, you can lose a whole lot. If Apple ever faced an issue like Samsung did with the Note 7, they might lose a whole lot more than Samsung did; or even if some more gradual issue appeared that drove away customers, it'd cause a much bigger rupture for the company.
Because, if you get tired of a particular piece of hardware in the Windows world (or even the Android world), you can easily migrate to another manufacturer, but still drag along all your legacy software and all your knowledge about the OS with you. If you get tired of Apple's hardware? Well, that's it. You're gone completely, all your investment into iOS wasted.
And no, there isn't a whole lot of room to grow iCloud services, at least not for the iPhone, and probably not for the iPad either. The smartphone is no longer an emerging market; everybody now has one (just like PCs!). You would need to create new devices to place iOS on, but the little-screen-in-your-hand market is now saturated, and iOS is designed specifically for little-screen-in-you-hand devices. New iOS devices today are purchased mainly as replacements for older iOS devices; if Apple ever loses those customers, good luck dragging them back into the ecosystem.
What am I going to store in myCloud in the future that will increase my storage needs, Daily full body MRI scans?
With Music and vids, we've pretty much reached the limit. Even at a million tweets a day, we're only talking 150 megabytes; 55 gigs a year. When I finally decide to do my own 90 day full-hemisphere weather forecasts, I'll be buying the storage space, not renting it from some place the NOAA can steal it.
With the growth of streaming, cloud becomes even less relevant.
With Music and vids, we've pretty much reached the limit. Even at a million tweets a day, we're only talking 150 megabytes; 55 gigs a year. When I finally decide to do my own 90 day full-hemisphere weather forecasts, I'll be buying the storage space, not renting it from some place the NOAA can steal it.
With the growth of streaming, cloud becomes even less relevant.
Eh, it's a rough estimate.
Wiki places the beginning of Unix around 1969, when several folks from the Multics team took their work on that OS and turned it into this new system. They place the beginning of Windows with the release of Windows 1.0 in 1985. Concepts for both operating systems were batted around for years before those dates, though.In any case, both operating systems have avoided tying themselves needlessly to particular hardware platforms, and have therefore survived long after the hardware they started out on has gone obsolete.
The thing some (meaning Mr. Cook & crowd) do not seem to get is that some work is best done on a BIG POWERFUL COMPUTER with a BIG MONITOR and a MOUSE and KEYBOARD of choice. Because that is the best work flow and productivity combination for certain jobs. And some simply PREFER that for whatever reason.
I was recently on the road for 2 days and had my iPad. Ouch, I missed my desktop like crazy. But watched some Netflix for sure
Not every item is going to generate top profits like the iPhone, but that does not mean it is not important in the overall scheme of things.
A Google Pixel phone can do like what, 100% of what an iPhone can do? And yet a high end Dell workstation kicks the butt of anything Apple has. By a serious margin.
The land is shifting, that is for sure.
I was recently on the road for 2 days and had my iPad. Ouch, I missed my desktop like crazy. But watched some Netflix for sure
Not every item is going to generate top profits like the iPhone, but that does not mean it is not important in the overall scheme of things.
A Google Pixel phone can do like what, 100% of what an iPhone can do? And yet a high end Dell workstation kicks the butt of anything Apple has. By a serious margin.
The land is shifting, that is for sure.
Apple has proven time and time again, they are willing to risk angering their customers by kicking legacy systems and hardware to the curb if it's not in their long ranged plans. Annoying? Yes. That being said, I'm not suggesting macOS will disappear any time soon. I am suggesting macOS is not as important to Apple as iOS and iCloud services.
iCloud services include more than just your iPhone and iPad. Your Mac and Apple TV are enhanced by iCloud. iCloud already has versions of Mail, iCloud storage, and iWorks in the cloud, accessible via browser. There is plenty of room for growth, especially if they copy Microsoft's Azure or Amazon's EC2 and provide a virtual Mac Mini via web services.
Again, not saying that macOS is going away. I'm saying, from a business prospective, I can see what trends are pushing Apple to devote more resources toward iOS and iCloud services.
I'm a developer, and that means I'm spending most of my working time looking at a fairly complex IDE on a couple of large-but-not-huge screens, using a full-size keyboard and mouse, because nothing less than that would be sufficient to the task. Until the iOS world can provide a similar environment, which it doesn't even come within twelve parsecs of and won't for the foreseeable future, then Apple's approach -- taking the headless desktop line and beating on its knees with a crowbar the way it's doing now -- is a tremendous disservice to the dev community and a howling, roaring shame.
Edit: now, because most of what I'm using is an open-source for delivery on Linux servers, there isn't *that* much keeping me from going, say, Ubuntu, except that we're institutionally locked into the Outlook world. I've used Ubuntu under VMWare Fusion on the Mac, and have an Ubuntu partition on my Windows mostly-gaming-box at home. But if one day I have to go the two-device route -- an iOS-ified dumb-mac for communications and an Ubuntu box for development -- that will be because Apple failed us, failed professional users, and took away a meaningful desktop development option.
Edit: now, because most of what I'm using is an open-source for delivery on Linux servers, there isn't *that* much keeping me from going, say, Ubuntu, except that we're institutionally locked into the Outlook world. I've used Ubuntu under VMWare Fusion on the Mac, and have an Ubuntu partition on my Windows mostly-gaming-box at home. But if one day I have to go the two-device route -- an iOS-ified dumb-mac for communications and an Ubuntu box for development -- that will be because Apple failed us, failed professional users, and took away a meaningful desktop development option.
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Outlook for Linux would change my life
You never know with the way MS are going these days - SQL server for Linux.
What I would like is a 'standard' Linux that has the 'standard' windows manager and package management. Why? Then it would be easier for Windows/Mac apps to be ported, and provide developers a platform they can support - there's too many variables for the Linux desktop these days with all the different distributions. I personally would love Lightroom and Photoshop to be available on Linux. Yes a load of good open source image editors and managers are available, but they aren't Lighroom and Photoshop. I've spent a long time learning how to use these, I don't want to learn again. I'm sure others have their own requirements, but setting standards for windows manager and package management would go a long way.
I'm in the same boat as OP. Although the better hardware on the windows side is not as important to me. I just went through all mac products and there is not one single Mac Desktop or Laptop I would like to own. Paying a premium for a device I would like to have is not a problem but paying a premium for a device I don't even want to have is no go.
I'm not saying that all Mac products are bad but they are just not what I want anymore. So I will use my current macbook pro until it dies and then I will jump ship.
I'm not saying that all Mac products are bad but they are just not what I want anymore. So I will use my current macbook pro until it dies and then I will jump ship.
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Looked at phones today. It's getting to be time.
Geeze Louise, $800 for a telephone? Plus service! And Data caps around 8GB a MONTH!
I rented a Bell phone for a few dollars a month back in 1983.
No Sims 2 or Pokemon Go, and I had to pay extra for long distance, but still, these modern prices make it like carrying a high end stereo around in your pocket.- No subwoofers, but good, honest 12" woofers and only 0.01%THD at 100 watts per channel RMS.
Landlines are definitely getting past their best by date, but I think I'll stick with a $75 ASUS Android, rather than go Apple's Saturn V route.
There's a distinct limit as to how Useful a telephone can actually make itself in my life.
That limit defines how much I'm willing to pay for some gadget that'll probably bend if I sit down with the thing in my back pocket. Next Gen is rumored to be over $1,000. That is Insane.
Geeze Louise, $800 for a telephone? Plus service! And Data caps around 8GB a MONTH!
I rented a Bell phone for a few dollars a month back in 1983.
No Sims 2 or Pokemon Go, and I had to pay extra for long distance, but still, these modern prices make it like carrying a high end stereo around in your pocket.- No subwoofers, but good, honest 12" woofers and only 0.01%THD at 100 watts per channel RMS.
Landlines are definitely getting past their best by date, but I think I'll stick with a $75 ASUS Android, rather than go Apple's Saturn V route.
There's a distinct limit as to how Useful a telephone can actually make itself in my life.
That limit defines how much I'm willing to pay for some gadget that'll probably bend if I sit down with the thing in my back pocket. Next Gen is rumored to be over $1,000. That is Insane.
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Listening to some podcasts, and they raised a couple of good points. First Apple did this as a way to use vaperware to hold on to customers. They realized some of their most ardent fanbase has switched platforms and wanting to stop the bleeding they're held this little soiree. Promising that in the future they'll have a better desktop The issue is the future could be 2 years down the road.
Secondly given how this was handled, how they said no more monitors will be made, then saying they'll be making an apple branded display, they may have lost their mojo. They're not the focused company with a clear plan like they used too. they bet heavily on products that you cannot upgrade and were surprised when people complained about them.
If Apple wants to retain it's professional user base? Apple needs to do one thing and one thing only "Act" no more "Talk" no more "Pipelines" no more "carefully selected" press meetings.
Two years to realise a desktop computer to market is laughable. I know companies that can complete rapid prototyping with complex engineering designs in a matter of a few months. I very much agree with maflynn this is little more than another sales & marketing exercise in an attempt to stem the "bleed".
I absolutely refuse to watch yet another Apple event, with Apple's exec's "glad-handing one another" and "congratulating themselves" for yet another underwhelming consumer product. I especially do not want to hear Tim Cook procrastinating over the amazing "things to come"
Apple need's to go back to it's roots, do what Steve Jobs did best deliver amazing products to market period, nothing more nothing less...
Q-6
The pipeline comments from cook these past 3, 4 (5?) years is what bothers me the most. He kept saying how Apple has some really great products in the pipeline, but yet this week we found that they're only now shifting gears to dry to meet the needs of professionals.
Too little, too late for many including myself. Given the trend Apple should not be trusted to deliver, beyond it's own self-serving need. When Apple stops the rhetoric, delivers solid product worthy of the professional user base, I may reconsider Apple as a serious provider once again.
Q-6
So what we're going to see is whether Apple is capable, institutionally, of learning from its mistakes. In particular, I think they will now have a clearer vision of the dotted line that separates Macs from the iOS-o-sphere. With the exception of the thermal design problem they cornered themselves with, it seems to me that the bad things happening in the Mac world were all about the iDevicing of the desktop Mac. You can make the case for an essentially unrepairable, un-upgradeable iPhone or iPad, engineered to remove every millimeter by welding everything in place. But people don't replace their computers every two years, and when they do they pay considerably more than the US$450 I just dropped on an iPhone SE. I hope the realization Apple's had is that
- upgradeability matters in the desktop, even if it doesn't in the iOS world
- repairability is crucial in the desktop, given the longer life span
- function, not form, drives the desktop
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